Meet the 'Wombles' of Chorlton

THEY’RE The Wombles of our present day and they’re burrowing away at the bottom of a south Manchester garden – to make good use of bad rubbish. New Chorlton-based group – Rubbish Revamped – has just one wombling aim, to recycle waste in inventive ways.

THEY’RE The Wombles of our present day and they’re burrowing away at the bottom of a south Manchester garden – to make good use of bad rubbish.

New Chorlton-based group – Rubbish Revamped – has just one wombling aim, to recycle waste in inventive ways.

The group has been set up by local craftsters Danielle Lowy and Carol Mowl and is currently running out of Carol’s arts and craft studio at the bottom of her garden, off St Werburgh’s Road in Chorlton.

And proving their metal as a popular take on the 1970s Wimbledon Common-based Wombles, this pair have already set up a string of workshops running into April – during which they are set to teach people how to transform tired ties into purses, junk mail into funky desk tidies, old jumpers into cuddly monkeys and odd buttons into romantic heart hangings.

Danielle, who lives off Clarendon Road West, and is also the brains behind the popular group Chorlton Plant Swap – where people exchange bulbs and seeds through an internet-based swap shop forum – said: "I guess we are a bit like The Wombles.

"Just yesterday I found a stray pink girl’s glove on the pavement and bagged it so that I can make a sock monster out of it! I’ve found that I look at rubbish in a totally different way now. I’m always thinking, could I make something interesting out of that?

"In this climate of waste reduction and recycling, we want to encourage people to view the inevitable junk that piles up in their lives as something that can give them entertainment and aesthetic pleasure.

"We’ve set up our group so that rubbish can bypass landfill or commercial recycling processes, by being turned into crafts."

Carol also runs felt-making courses in her studio garden and the pair are hoping to appeal to people who fancy having a go at making crafts, without feeling daunted about whether they have artistic skills.

Danielle said: "We really emphasis the relaxed atmosphere in our workshops. We keep the groups fairly small and never have more than eight people in one workshop.

"We want to encourage those who are interested to come and have a go. No art and craft experience is needed, just a sense of fun."

All materials used within the Rubbish Revamped workshops are recycled, but there are two things on the menu that are always fresh – and that’s the coffee and cake.

Rubbish Revamped run workshops on Thursdays, between 7-9pm. For more information, email Danielle or Carol at rubbishrevamped@googlemail.com, or visit http://rubbishrevamped.wordpress.com